Alpha:LEMMISI

LEMMISI ("Let Me See") is one of the Glyphs you can find in a game of Desktop Dungeons. When used, this Glyph reveals 3 unexplored dungeon tiles selected at random. The Glyph is available for any fresh profile.

Usage

Each use of LEMMISI costs 3 Mana, except for the Wizard for whom it costs only 2 Mana, and the Berserker for whom it costs 5.

The spell may still be used if there are less than 3 unexplored tiles remaining (or none), and will cost the same amount of Mana regardless.

Effect

When cast, LEMMISI randomly selects 3 tiles which have not yet been explored in the current dungeon. It then proceeds to reveal those tiles.

If only 3 or fewer tiles are left unexplored, they are revealed in the same way. If the dungeon has no unexplored tiles remaining, the spell is cast successfully but without any effect.

Revealing tiles counts as exploration for all intents and purposes. This normally means that you will regenerate Health and Mana for each explored tile as normal for your character, and count towards the number of tiles explored on this dungeon (for Scoring purposes and other effects).
In addition, your enemy will also regenerate his Health (unless inflicted with Poison from any source) as occurs during normal exploration.

Tiles are chosen completely at random from the remaining unexplored tiles left in the dungeon. It is impossible to tell LEMMISI which tiles to reveal.

Also, this means that LEMMISI can reveal tiles that are not explorable by simple walking around the maze - like tiles surrounded by walls. In fact, LEMMISI is the only current way to reveal such tiles other than tunneling towards them (with ENDISWAL or other similar effects).

Availability

LEMMISI is unlocked from the moment you install Desktop Dungeons. It has a certain chance to appear in each dungeon you play, supposedly the same chance as any other unlocked Glyph (though this has yet to be proven conclusively).

There are currently no other ways to acquire LEMMISI other than by finding lying around it in a dungeon.

Stand-alone Use

Although revealing bits of the dungeon is helpful in some circumstances, the primary use of LEMMISI is for the Health and Mana regeneration triggered by exploring those bits.

Thanks to this point, LEMMISI is often considered to have a casting cost of 0 Mana - because exploring 3 tiles normally restores 3 Mana, basically covering the cost of the spell itself.

In addition, exploring 3 tiles also normally restores 3 Health points per Character Level - again, the same as exploring 3 tiles of the dungeon "in person". Because it "costs no Mana", and yet restores Health, LEMMISI is often considered a Healing spell.

However, there are two caveats to this spell:

For one, it only works if there are tiles left to explore. For these reasons, the use of LEMMISI is often restricted to the very late stage of the game, when most or all tiles that are reachable through normal movement have already been explored. LEMMISI is then used to explore the unreachable tiles, allowing the character to make use of up to 100% of the dungeon tiles available, prolonging their "staying power" against the dungeon Boss(es).

Additionally, wounded monsters that are not Poisoned will regenerate at their normal rate for each tile explored. These effects makes LEMMISI a very different Glyph from "HALPMEH" (see more below). They also mean that LEMMISI is frequently used between battles rather than during battle.

LEMMISI vs. Exploration

As established above, using LEMMISI once is similar to exploring three tiles of the dungeon by moving next to them. However, there are several key differences.

Again, LEMMISI can reveal dungeon tiles that you cannot normally reach with normal exploration. This includes tiles that are completely surrounded by walls, or that are blocked in any other way by monsters you can't defeat, Plants, or any other obstruction. If you cannot tunnel towards a tile, or otherwise remove the obstacle blocking you way to it, LEMMISI becomes the only methods of exploring this tile.

LEMMISI also costs Mana. For most characters, this is not much of a problem, because if 3 tiles are explored with LEMMISI you will regain 3 Mana back, meaning that the spell broke even and basically cost you nothing. Note that this is not true for all Character Classes (see more below).

The Mana cost also means that if you do not have enough Mana to pay LEMMISI's casting cost, you cannot use the spell at all. It doesn't matter if revealing 3 tiles would earn you the entire cost of your spell back - you cannot pay for it with the Mana you gain from its use.

Furthermore, exploring dungeon tiles normally will gain you Mana, while using LEMMISI normally won't. By casting LEMMISI, you are usually exploiting tiles for Health regeneration alone - tiles that, if they had been explored normally, would've gained you both.

Finally, you cannot control which tiles will be revealed by LEMMISI, or how many are revealed, as you do when manually exploring the dungeon. It will not necessarily reveal what's hiding behind that monster you can't defeat, or whether there are tunnels in the unreachable parts of the dungeon. It selects any 3 tiles that have not been explored and reveals them. The only case where you know in advance which tiles will be revealed is when there are 3 or fewer tiles left unexplored, in which case LEMMISI will reveal all of them.

For these reasons, LEMMISI is generally used as in the late-game, after all reachable tiles have been explored.

LEMMISI vs. HALPMEH

After using it a couple of times, the novice player may be deceived into thinking that LEMMISI is a Healing spell. However, while it is often used for Healing, LEMMISI is very different from the more traditional Healing spell - HALPMEH.

On a normal casting, both spells appear to have a similar result: They cure 3 points of Health per Character Level. In addition, LEMMISI seems to have cost no Mana (after paying back for itself) and has revealed 3 dungeon tiles.

And yet, as a Healing spell, HALPMEH is far more efficient nonetheless. There are two reasons for this, both stemming from the fact that LEMMISI is actually an Exploration spell, which works by exploiting unrevealed tiles as a means to regenerate Health.

The first and most important reason is that when casting LEMMISI, all wounded monsters will regenerate their Health as normal - per each tile explored. This is basically the same as revealing three tiles by walking up to them, during combat. You regain Health - but so do your enemies. For this reason, the spell cannot be used in mid-fight to regenerate Health for defeating a stronger opponent, as he will normally regenerate faster than you. This does not happen with HALPMEH, which only heals you. This, of course, is a moot point if the character is also able to Poison his enemies!

The second reason lies in the fact that some characters cannot regenerate Health properly anyway, like the Transmuter. For these characters, Health is not regenerated when exploring, and so will not regenerate through LEMMISI either. Of course, a Transmuter often relies on BLUDTUPOWA anyway, and so can use LEMMISI as a Mana-Regeneration spell rather than a Healing spell altogether.

Of course, the opposite is also true - HALPMEH has some downsides when compared to LEMMISI, especially the fact that it drains Mana, eventually forcing you to explore anyway.

Choosing which spell to use for healing really depends greatly on the type of character you've got, and your current progress in the Dungeon. While Mana and unexplored tiles are plentiful, HALPHEH works best, and is usable in mid-combat. Once tiles start becoming scarce, it may be necessary to conserve Mana and explore the unreachable tiles with LEMMISI to gain Health. It is impossible to outline the exact situations where either one should be used - this is really up to your own experience.

Scoring effects

LEMMISI is one of the Glyphs whose use can increase your score for a dungeon:

Each tile explored, with LEMMISI or otherwise, grants 4 points to your score. Since LEMMISI can reveal tiles that aren't normally reachable, it increases your potential score by around 300 points.

The first time you use LEMMISI in the current dungeon will give you 200 points. Subsequent uses won't count. This works every time you pick up LEMMISI in any dungeon.

Use the "LEMMISI Trick" 5 times in a dungeon to earn a bonus of 750 points.

Info required: Please explain exactly what the game considers to be the "LEMMISI trick", and what it doesn't.

The "LEMMISI Trick" should be the fact that it pays for itself mana-wise, every time I've used LEMMISI 5 times, I've gotten the award.

LEMMISI is one of the ways to explore 95% or more of the dungeon. If this is done, you'll get a bonus of 800 points. Other ways are usually more wasteful, and involve tunneling with ENDISWAL, Knockback abilities, and so forth.

Spell Combos

APHEELSIK

This is the most useful combo for LEMMISI.

In stand-alone use, APHEELSIK allows the character to explore freely (and regenerate) in the middle of a battle, while keeping his target wounded and unable to regenerate.

By combining this with LEMMISI, one can extend his ability to do so even when all reachable tiles have been explored. This basically prolongs the usefulness of APHEELSIK beyond the normal. You will be able to use APHEELSIK even during a prolonged boss fight (especially a second boss fight in Challenge dungeons), where other characters (without LEMMISI) would've run out of tiles and exhausted the usefulness of APHEELSIK.

Combine with BLUDTUPOWA for a different regenerative effect.

BURNDAYRAZ

On its own, this combo is relatively useless. LEMMISI's primary effect is to regenerate Health at the expense of tile exploration, but normally breaks even as far as Mana regeneration is concerned. Therefore, characters who rely on repeated casting of BURNDAYRAZ cannot normally use LEMMISI to refill their Mana for another Fireball.

However, this is turned on its head if the hero can acquire a third Glyph - BLUDTUPOWA, which enables him to regenerate much more Mana than he spends on LEMMISI. This can lead to quickly refilling your Mana (though at the expense of tiles).

BLUDTUPOWA

A very interesting combo, BLUDTUPOWA basically changes LEMMISI's function. While BLUDTUPOWA is activated, the exploration of tiles caused by LEMMISI will end up restoring no Health, but instead regenerate your Mana.

BLUDTUPOWA causes tile exploration to regenerate 2 Mana instead of just 1. With 3 tiles explored from the use of LEMMISI, you will have gained (2*3)= 6 Mana per use. This outweighs the cost of casting LEMMISI by 3 Mana. So the spell actually earns you (6-3)= 3 Mana points per use!

This use of LEMMISI is best saved for the end-game, the same as normal LEMMISI use. If you can actually explore 3 tiles yourself, there's no reason to use LEMMISI, because actual exploration of the same number of tiles would yield you 6 Mana instead of only 3. It is only when no more tiles are left to explore by foot that you can start using LEMMISI for this purpose, sucking out what Mana remains in the unexplored, unreachable sections of the dungeon.

This Mana can be used to cast any other spell, as normal.

Specific Classes

Monk

The Monk has a special benefit from LEMMISI that makes it a more lucrative choice as a Healing spell than HALPMEH. Monks regenerate 2 Health points per Character Levl for each tile they explore, instead of the normal 1. As a result, they will heal extremely rapidly whenever LEMMISI is cast, without spending any Mana in the process. This also means they conserve unexplored tiles much better than other users of LEMMISI.

As a result, once the Monk has reached the final stage of the dungeon (fighting the bosses), he retains a very large number of unexplored tiles to use for regenerating his Health. This is primarily useful if the Monk can get a hold of APHEELSIK. Otherwise, use it to heal up for the Boss fight.

Wizard

To the Wizard, a single use of LEMMISI costs only 2 mana instead of the normal 3. When it reveals 3 tiles, it restores 3 Mana as normal. Therefore, for each use of LEMMISI, the Wizard gains 1 point of Mana along with any Health gain involved.

This is generally not very useful, as you gain 1 Mana for the cost of 3 Dungeon Tiles, and the Health regain isn't very useful for Wizards to begin with. However, when BLUDTUPOWA is added as a second Glyph and activated, each use of LEMMISI will restore 6 Mana instead of 3. The bottom line: You spend 2 Mana to cast the spell, earn 6 Mana back, giving you a total benefit of 4 Mana per casting.

This allows a quick re-charge of Mana when reachable unexplored tiles have been exhausted. With APHEELSIK of course, it allows rapid regeneration of Mana during combat.

Sorcerer

The Sorcerer makes excellent use of LEMMISI due to his natural ability to gain Health whenever he spends Mana. For each Mana point he spends, he gains exactly 2 points of Health. Since LEMMISI costs 3 Mana to cast, each use will gain the Sorcerer +6 Health on top of whatever Health regeneration is received from the explored tiles. This allows very rapid Healing, and can essentially turn the Sorcerer into a formidable Melee combatant.

With BLUDTUPOWA acquired and activated, the effect is completely different: You gain +3 Mana from the extra regenerative effect of BLUDTUPOWA, and an additional 6 Health given by spending the casting cost of LEMMISI. This extra Health is derived directly from the Sorcerer's abilities, so it is not canceled out by BLUDTUPOWA.

Again, combine with APHEELSIK for best results.

Assassin, Bloodmage

These characters start with the APHEELSIK and BLUDTUPOWA glyphs, respectively. Since these Glyphs make strong combos with LEMMISI, they have an extra advantage when they find the LEMMISI Glyph. Other than that, neither character actually makes terribly good use of these combos.

Transmuter

The Transmuter is a special case because he does not regenerate Health from exploration. And since the regenerative effects of LEMMISI are normally the result of revealing tiles, the Transmuter gains nothing from its use. He will spend 3 Mana, gain 3 Mana from the regeneration, and that's it.

Of course, the spell still retains some usefulness if BLUDTUPOWA is found, as a means to regenerate Mana. However, since the Transmuter rarely if ever has a problem exploring more tiles (he regularly tunnels through walls anyway to regain Health), this is of limited use.

Vampire

Using LEMMISI when playing the Vampire is a terrible mistake. Vampires not only do not gain Health from exploration, they actually LOSE 1 point of Health for each tile they explore. As a result, they have nothing to gain from LEMMISI. To make things worse, the casting cost of LEMMISI, like all other Glyphs, comes out of the Vampire's Health instead of his Mana. Therefore, he pays 3 Health to cast the spell, then loses another 3 Health from the revealed tiles, and gains absolutely nothing.

Convert the Glyph on sight!

LEMMISI and the Gods

Several Gods in the game have various opinions about the use of LEMMISI - they may favour it or reject it, depending on their own particular creeds.

Taurog

As with any other Glyph, Taurog will penalize you -5 Piety points every time you use LEMMISI. Also, his reduction of Maximum Mana means you will usually remain with too little Mana to use the Glyph anyway.

Binlor Ironshield

Binlor is also averse to the use of spells, and will inflict a penalty of -1 Piety point per each use of LEMMISI, as with all other Glyphs (except ENDISWAL).

Mystera Annur

Mystera Annur grants +1 Piety for each use of LEMMISI (As with any other spell). This is doubled to +2 Piety if you've also acquired the "Faith" boon from her.

Using LEMMISI on its own for this purpose is rather wasteful, but is a quick way to gain a large amount of Piety if you need Piety more than you need unexplored tiles for Mana regeneration. This is because you can cast it as long as there are tiles left to explore.

With BLUDTUPOWA, the balance changes a little. LEMMISI will then both restore your Mana (very important for worshippers of the Arcane Goddess) and gain you Piety. Again, this is best used only when strapped for Piety points, or when Mana regeneration is no longer an issue.

Pactmaker

Using LEMMISI before joining Pactmaker may be a good gamble, because upon joining, The Pactmaker will award you Piety points based on the number of tiles you've explored. If you want to start off with a large amount of Piety, you can cast LEMMISI as many times as required (or as possible) to explore large parts of the dungeon. Of course, this is a poor substitute to actually exploring on foot, so it's not recommended unless you know exactly what you're doing.